Laptops Posts - Page 28

Sony's business-suited notebooks, VAIO S and VAIO Z, have received Intel's latest and greatest Ivy Bridge CPUs. Sony have also outed two new VAIO E models, VAIO E Series 15 and 17 join the 14P as part of Sony's entertainment line, but unlike the smaller 14P, they won't be receiving Intel's Ivy Bridge processors.

The VAIO S will arrive in 13.5- and 15.5-inch display options, sporting backlight keyboards and either an aluminum, magnesium or carbon fiber frame, depending on the model. The 15.5-inch model will be on of the 1080p IPS-based displays, but what the smaller display is made from is still shrouded in mystery.

VAIO S 13 buyers will have a few choices to make, between Core i5 and i7 processors, while the larger display system will come with an Intel Core i7-3612QM, 8GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GT640 LE GPU as well as integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. The 15 will sport a 1TB HDD, whilst both systems will have the option of a solid-state drive. Both systems are expected to weigh in at less than 4.4 pounds.

The VAIO Z should feature the same CPU and RAM as the S model, but with a 256GB SSD powering the storage side of things, instead of the mechanically-driven 1TB option. Other configurations will include built-in 3G/4G LTE radios, while an optional media pack will provide an optical drive, and Radeon HD 7670M graphics. These systems will get on the scales at less than 2.6 pounds, with a thickness of less than 0.7-inches.

Dell may have started the carbon-fiber in Ultrabooks fad, but it appears that Lenovo has taken it a step further with their latest creation. Being touted as the "lightest 14-inch Ultrabook in the industry," the ThinkPad X1 weighs in at under 3lbs. And they didn't strip out features to achieve that feat.

What you are looking at is an Ultrabook with all carbon-fiber rollcage. "We crafted the ThinkPad X1 Carbon with premium carbon fiber material in order to make it incredibly thin and light, yet durable," said Lu Yan, senior vice president, Think Product Group, Lenovo. "Our new ThinkPad laptop portfolio embodies much of the innovative thinking exemplified in the X1 Carbon, such as a backlit keyboard, super-bright high definition display, Dolby® Home Theatre® and rich communications features that balance business performance with personal use."

The announcement page gives only some details on the upcoming Ultrabook. The Ultrabook has built in 3G connectivity for "anywhere, anytime access" and comes with a "RapidCharge" battery which, according to Lenovo, can charge to near-full capacity in only 30 minutes. Lenovo is billing this machine as a premium professional machine, and I can see why.

More details about it have been spilled by the Verge who were in attendance of Lenovo's presentation. The ThinkPad X1 will have a backlit keyboard along with an Ivy Bridge processor.

Ivy Bridge-powered Apple MacBook Pro and iMac benchmarks have leaked onto Geekbench, which show the new Macs sporting Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors. We should expect some new Ivy Bridge-powered Mac products in the coming weeks, or months.

The latest MacBook Pro carries the model designation 9,1, whilst the 27-inch iMac is designated 13,2. Additionally, Best Buy has marked down its whole Mac range, which is another sign that Apple is poised to refresh their Mac line-up. How do the ivy Bridge-powered Mac's perform?

Well, the MacBook Pro model was powered by a Core i7-3820QM quad-core chip clocked in at 2.7GHz, and scored 12,252 on the Geekbench test. Versus the second-generation Core i7 MacBook Pro, this is a 17-percent performance boost. The 27-inch iMac running a desktop-class Ivy Bridge processor was clocked at 3.4GHz, but only scored 12,183 as it only had 4GB of RAM. This puts it 9-percent faster than the current Sandy Bridge-powered iMac.

There are always a lot of rumors associated with Apple as their products are surrounded by security up until they launch. Today brings another rumor who is citing sources in the supply chain. As always, until it is confirmed by Apple (so, at launch), it is a rumor, so take some salt, throw it over your shoulder and read on.

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As Apple's Tim Cook said at the close of the iPad 3 launch, "There's a lot to look forward to." Not only is he promising us more releases, but he is promising them to be good. If the sources are correct, one of these good upcoming releases will be the next generation 15-inch MacBook Pro. The rumor says that it will not be Air-like in its unibody construction.

Rather, it will be a thinned down version of the current unibody design. In order to thin the case, Apple will be removing the optical drive, but who uses those anyway? This means that the power button will be moved to where the eject button used to be on the keyboard. Of course, it features a compliment of connectivity ports along the side.

It will also feature a Retina display, according to the rumor, along with USB3.0. The Retina display is a logical next step as it has been intro'd on the iPhone and iPad. The USB 3.0 is being introduced finally because Ivy Bridge is the first Intel chip to natively support USB 3.0.

ASUS have just taken the covers off of their latest Ultrabook, which sports a discrete graphics card. It's a 13.3-inch Ultrabook, dubbed Zenbook UX32VD, and sports an Ivy Bridge CPU, with one of three options: i3-3217U, i5-3317U or i7-3517U.

Graphics-wise, it comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M with 1GB of memory, and while it's not the biggest and baddest GPU on the market, it should handle most things at 720p, or games like Diablo III without a problem.

The strange thing here is that the Zenbook UX32VD sports an IPS display with a resolution of 1920x1080... but a GPU that wouldn't handle anywhere near that resolution in games. On the other hand, it would look great when doing everything but gaming. Filling out the Zenbook we find 500GB of mechanical storage, with a 24GB flash cache next to it, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, and it should cost somewhere in between $800 and $1,100.

It definitely looks good, the IPS display is very nice, and the pricing seems perfect. Seems like a great Diablo III Ultrabook!

Another Samsung notebook is on its way to e-tailer and retailer shelves, with the new notebook being the mid-range Series 7 Chronos. The NP700Z7CH sports Intel's Core i7-3615QM, which is a quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU.

Filling out the rest of the notebook, we find 8GB of DDR3 memory, 1TB HDD with an 8GB ExpressCache drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, a 17.3-inch screen with a 1920x1080 resolution, a slow-loading DVDRW and some JBL-branded speakers.

Finishing off the NP700Z7CH, we'll find 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a miniDisplayPort, a D-sub connector, two audio jacks, a memory card reader and an HD webcam. Quite the array, isn't it? It weighs in at 2.84kg, and is a little under 25mm thick, which is pretty thin if you ask me.

The surprising thing is that its just US$1,499. Considering the specs, that's quite an amazing price for a well-specced notebook. It makes me want to upgrade my 2011 Apple MacBook Pro, that's for sure.

Everyone has heard of the Intel Ultrabook by now. Intel has spent large sums of money on advertising Ultrabooks as well as helping manufacturers develop Ultrabooks. Unfortunately, as of right now, Ultrabook pricing has been high and out of the range of many consumers, including yours truly. By not using the name 'Ultrabook,' HP doesn't have to fully abide by Intel's rules.

This new line is said to feature both AMD or Intel processors along with a choice of 14- or 15.6-inch screens. Prices are said to start around $599 as opposed to the $749 starting price of other Ultrabooks. The aggressive pricing should help bring in more consumers, and it certainly has my interests piqued.

The machines are maintained at 19.8mm thickness, or less, and weigh under 1.8kg. Battery life is said to last for between seven and nine hours. The release of AMD Trinity, which should occur soon, will further boost the platform. The lack of Ultrabook qualification does have a few detriments, but overall this new machine should gain a lot of support from consumers.

Toshiba's 10-inch model from their Excite line of tablets is now available for order. The Toshiba Excite 10 comes in 16, 32 and 64GB models, with all models sporting a 10.1-inch, 1280x800 Gorilla Glass display, and boast a 10-hour battery life.

The Excite 10 does not come with Bluetooth 4.0, instead it features Bluetooth 3.0 and a 5-megapixel rear-facing snapper backed up by a 2-megapixel front-facer. Excite 10 starts at $450 and sports NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core chip, as well as Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

Pricing on them is not bad with the 16, 32 and 64GB priced at $450, $530, and $650, respectively. Not bad for some NVIDIA Tegra 3-powered tablet goodness.

Rumors about upcoming Apple products are often some of the most interesting and fun as Apple products are often shrouded in security and hard to pin down any detail. As such, many rumors pop up that aren't true but sound reasonable. This rumor could very well fit into this category, or it could end up being true.

It's important to note that the picture above is a mock-up and not an actual photo of the upcoming MacBook Pro 2012. The rumor we are dealing with today says that Apple will be ditching the optical drive in the next iteration of the MacBook Pro. As Apple has proven the CD-less model works using the MacBook Air, this isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Ditching the optical drive will leave a gaping hole in the chassis, so one might think that the case will get a size reduction similar to the Air. The rumor states that this is wrong and that instead the MacBook Pro will be getting a larger battery along with a second drive. The two drive system would provide one SSD for boot only and a standard HDD for everything else.

A larger battery, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% more capacity, could provide days of battery life, or support a more pixel-dense display. This rumor seems logical as MacBook Pro users love the larger screen and higher performance processor. The rumor says to expect both of these additions this summer.